The season winds down and only a few playoff positions are still open. We're still churning through our power rankings model based on underlying statistics and their predicative ability. Our rankings aren't based solely on the current NHL standings, though points earned are a portion of the model, they are based on a number of underlying metrics so the rankings are constantly in flux.

We're still tweaking the model, so we're not quite ready to unveil it, but consider this NHLNumbers' current best effort at predicting the standings and playoff pairings at the end of the season. One item of note - 38% of the game is luck, and we don't attempt to predict or model that 38%, and we don't plan to.

The latest edition of the NHLNumbers Predictive Power Rankings:

Rank

Team

NHLNShare

1

Chicago Blackhawks

1.43

2

Pittsburgh Penguins

2.64

3

Montreal Canadiens

3.98

4

Anaheim Ducks

4.08

5

Boston Bruins

4.85

6

Vancouver Canucks

6.34

7

Los Angeles Kings

7.44

8

Toronto Maple Leafs

7.50

9

St. Louis Blues

8.24

10

San Jose Sharks

9.25

11

Ottawa Senators

10.13

12

Minnesota Wild

11.85

13

Washington Capitals

12.76

14

New York Rangers

12.98

15

New York Islanders

14.12

16

Detroit Red Wings

14.88

17

Dallas Stars

15.41

18

Columbus Blue Jackets

17.55

19

Phoenix Coyotes

17.82

20

New Jersey Devils

19.04

21

Winnipeg Jets

19.16

22

Edmonton Oilers

21.34

23

Buffalo Sabres

21.43

24

Philadelphia Flyers

22.67

25

Nashville Predators

22.87

26

Tampa Bay Lightning

23.51

27

Carolina Hurricanes

24.62

28

Calgary Flames

24.71

29

Colorado Avalanche

27.31

30

Florida Panthers

27.40

Based on these rankings, the predicted playoff matchups look like this: